Custom WoD Vampirism
Vampires are mythical undead creatures that feed off of blood. We have a specific use for them in our settings. The Vampire The vampires we use in our settings are heavily inspired by the World of Darkness vampires, found in the systems (respectively) Vampire the- Masquerade and Requiem. 'Creation of a vampire' A vampire is created when a vampire feeds it's blood to a recently dead human. An important factor to remember is, that for this to succeed, the human who is to be "embraced" (the term used by vampires about this process) must still have an intact brain which is attached to the rest of the corpse, as well as a, more or less, undamaged heart. The process can take a few minutes, but sometimes it takes but a few seconds. Occasionally it has taken longer than minutes. It's hard to confirm anything when it comes to vampires, but rumours speak of some vampires turning after several days, and even of a single case of a corpse that was preserved and turned after 100 years. 'The change' As soon as the initial transformations are complete, the vampires body begins the painful and confusing mutation process, and for the next couple of days, the vampire will be half mortal, half undead, still capable of eating and digesting, as well as walking the sun, but gradually will lose appetite for normal food and loathe the sun. The fledgeling (vampire term for recently embraced), will almost immediately develop rectractable canines and their eyes change so they work optimally at night, but will be partially blinded in daylight. All of their senses highten very rapidly in no specific order, their physical appearance changing rapidly, growing taller, more muscular and by normal standards, prettier. They will experience mood swings, and start failing to stay awake during the day. The full transformation takes less than 13 days normally. The most disturbing thing for most fledgelings is the amount of enhanced instincts. The vampire will suddenly know how to feed, that they can lick their own wounds to heal them, that they must conceal their nature from humans (the thought of being outed as a vampire causes fear and anxiety in them), that they cannot trust anyone, they will instinctively know that they need to stay away from fire and the sun, and that they need a secure hiding place, as well as their bloods ability to bind people to their will. 'The final product' Most organs have changed either into simple blood storage, or mutated into transformation stations, assisting with the transformation of mammal blood into vitae (magical vampire blood). Every 24 hours, the vampire burns about half a litre of vitae to fuel it's undead state. The vampire will not age from this point and onwards, but it's body can still change, this requires the vampire to burn vitae in large amounts, however, and can also only be attempted if the vampire is currently in a stable condition. 'Generation' Many speculate who it might have been, but thousands of years ago, the first vampire, or perhaps first generation of vampires were somehow created. Regardless of how that happened, vampires have been counting the generations since that happened, and most vampires are aware of what generation they are.The first three generations are regarded as the ancestor generations with most believing that the first generation was a single vampire. The second generation is widely regarded as having been only af few individuals who in many of the tales were not supposed to have passed on the affliction but did anyway. All of them were supposedly put to death and as such, the third generation are considered the founding fathers of all the now existing bloodlines, the majority of who are still alive, but have long since fallen into deep hibernation. This generation are known as the Antideluvians, and while not all existing bloodlines even recognize the theory of antideluvians, not being able to trace ones heritage back to one makes one of lesser stock. Despite the many theories about who the first vampires were, most vampires agree that there are no more than 17 existing generations of vampires at present, but only 13 of them are considered the true "generations" as the 14th generation of vampires and onwards fall into a category called "thin-bloods", and after the 17th generation, vampires are no longer able to pass on the curse. Vampires below the 8th generation have been rare for a very long time, almost through out recorded history. Vampires of 6th generation are the lowest generations widely recognized as still occasionally making appearances, and as such the 7th and 6th generations are recognized as methusaleh. 'Potency' Vampires grow stronger over time, the lower their generation the quicker they grow in power. It's very hard to measure power-levels of vampires, and the bloodpotency stat is a meta aspect of the game, existing primarily on the sheet. A vampire is not able to tell that another vampire is, for instance, of the 5th level of blood potency, they can just tell whether the vampire is higher, lower or equal to them, but that said, the first three bloodpotency levels are known to vampires, the first being the level attained as a fledgeling, the second being the the level of transition and the third level representing a vampire who has completed his transformation. At some point, the vampire gains a certain mastery over their bodies making them capable of burning more vitae than he could previously, and this level is recognized as the 4th power level, despite it being achieved at the sixth point of bloodpotency in actuality. After reaching the third level, a 13th generation vampire takes approximately 50 years to advance, meaning a vampire has to have been a vampire for at least 150 years into his vampirism to advance to the 4th power level (blood potency 6), and this is the only reason vampires actually have a clue as to how long it takes to advance. The 13th generation is the last "true" generation, and therefor it is used to calculate such matters, seing as no one actually knows a 1st generation vampire. A vampire of lower generation advances in potency faster. Approximately 10 years faster per drop in generation. A 10 generation vampire advances every 20 years, and an an 8th generation vampire advances every year. Below the 8th generation, bloodpotency advancement is generally unknown, but some say that vampires below that level were always at the highest level of potency. When a vampire is in torpor, they quickly lose blood potency, but never fall below the third level. A vampire may also for various reasons advance his bloodpotency for reasons not entirely understandable. Some people just advance quicker (by spending exp), or diablerie may be used. The generation merit lowers the exp cost to raise bloodpotency prematurely. Normally, the exp cost is 10 xp + the dot you want to buy (no multiplication!), but the generation merit lowers the exp cost by 3 per dot. The generation merit only costs 2 exp per dot at creation, but cannot be raised at a later time, except through diablerie. 'Thin-bloods' A thinblooded vampire is a vampire with a higher generation than 13. Some vampires seem to think that the recent generations are also necessarily the newest vampires. This is not true. During the times of the Roman Empire, the Greek city-states, the Egyptian Empire and so on, vampires prospered and the thinblood generations were discovered back then. Obviously, thinblooded vampires were rare back in the days, as the lower generation vampires were more common and stronger. There were only so many people alive back then and vampires were relatively few, the weakest rarely survived, but the thinblooded was bred back then for a reason. It was quickly discoverd that the 17th generation of thinblooded were capable of reproduction. Their children laid the foundation for the "revenants" (see further below). 14th generation thinblooded cannot rise beyond the third dot of blood potency and are as such only technically thin-blooded as they are fully capable vampires, they just never advance in potency, unless they diablerize. A 15th generation cannot advance to the third state and is stuck in a strange middle-phase (blood potency 2), where they can still walk exposed in sunlight but lack quite a few of the powers other vampires possess. The 16th generation can only amount the first level of potency and can barely finish their mutations and can still ingest human food and sustain themselves for a long time that way and the 17th generation as mentioned can even concieve children, but cannot further create vampires. Thin blooded vampires, with the exception of the 14th generation cannot go into torpor for extended periods of time. 'Diablerie ' When a vampire kills another vampire by consuming their last drop of blood it's called diablerie. The vampire performing the diablerie is rumored to be at risk however, seeing as, in absorbing the essence of another vampire this way, he not only gains a considerable amount of the other vampire's powers, but there's a risk of gaining even more than that. Indeed, it has occasionally happened that a vampire that has performed diablerie was the one who did not survive the encounter, as the consciousness of the other vampire took over the diablerists' body, and even more horrendous tales exist. It's possible that these tales are just meant to disencourage would be dialberists. Diablerie is considered a sin in vampire society, and a crime, but it's rarely actually punished as it's tremendously difficult to prove that diablerie has taken place. This is because diablerie is also used as a punishment. More specifically, when a bloodhunt (the term used to describe when there is an arrest warrant for a vampire) is called on a vampire, the punishment is often entirely fatal, but vampires are never just "executed", as this is a waste. No, rather, when a bloodhunt is called, vampires who are suspected of standing to gain (not all vampires will gain much from the act of diablerie, the vampire being diablerised should ideally be more powerful than the diablerist) from the act of diablerie of this particular victim are often employed in the hunt, and observed by the Sheriff (the vampire responsible for keeping the law), and as such, the "blood is returned to the people". Sometimes the right to diablerise is given to someone specific as a reward and so on. In anyway, diablerie is used stategically to empower the allies of those who can call bloodhunts. 'Torpor' A vampire will feel the urge to sleep when the sun rises, but this urge can be resisted, provided the vampire is in fine shape (just like with humans trying to pull an all-nighter, only slightly more extreme want to doze off). When a vampire sleeps, it's called "torpor", and technically, the vampire seizes to be undead when it does, which also entirely protects the vampire from any scrying attempts or tracking attempts by those means. When a vampire marks a place as home, that place will instinctively feel safer to sleep at. If a vampire wants to sleep elsewhere and still feel safe, it needs to bring soil taken from their original home, otherwise they lose one point of willpower from sleeping in fear, and they do not also regain one willpower from a days sleep. A vampire can mark a new place as their home, if they so desire, but that means losing all territorial feelings towards their old home, and it also requires the vampire to spend a point of willpower as well as a point of vitae. They must find a place that they regard as safe enough, or a place they genuinely believe they can hold as their territory, and then they must spray their own blood on the soil and let it soak in. This will mark the place as their territory, in a 1 km radius from that place, pr dot of blood potency. 'Frenzy' A vampire carries inside it, a beast or an animal that is purely in it's mind. It's a part of it's own consciousness that can take control and wants to do so. The intsintcts that comes with being an undead terror of the night, super powerful instincts that threaten to surpress forever what ever is left of the original human's personality, and turn the undead creature that the human has become, into a ferrocious territorial killing machine, that hunts and sleeps. Thousands of years ago, vampires that had dropped into a permanent state of frenzy actually had an easier time surviving than those that tried to hide amongst the humans. These dreaded creatures had all the right instincts, they struck quickly, surrounded themselves with animal servants as well as human servants and lived at night, only to satiate their own hunger and defend their territory, with no regard for anything or anyone, but as times changed, the frenzied vampires became a threat to the "masquerade" (a term describing the hidden existence of vampires that is necessary for them to stay alive), and most of them were hunted down as the monsters they were, but occasionally, they still appear, vampires that have lost their very last shred of humanity. Several things can cause a vampire to frenzy, most common are exposure to fire and sunlight, very sudden bright lights, strong negative emotions, hunger and physical pain. This can further be divided into several categories of "frenzies"; 'Fear frenzy' A vampire that has been exposed to something dangerous, or who has been seriously frightened will react by entering a state of frenzy. Primal instincts to flee to safety and hide will take over. The vampire will fight with full lethalty to achieve this, and if cornered will fight to the death. Exposure to sunlight and fire will also cause this particular kind of frenzy. 'Normal frenzy' The most common form of frenzy is usually triggered by an unacceptable amount of negative emotions at the same time, or extreme pain. This causes the vampire to fly into a state of incontrolable rage, and will murder everyone in sight. Once no more people are in sight, the vampire is very likely to feed until it feels satiated, and then the frenzy will end. 'Feeding frenzy' A vampire that is running low on vitae will during any frenzy that is not a fear, will attempt to feed during that frenzy, but a frenzy caused by hunger will end as soon as the vampire has managed to satiate it's hunger. During a frenzy a vampire doesn't become stupid, despite losing the ability to determine if it's a good idea or a bad idea to try and feed from a paticular target, or if it's a good or bad idea to attempt to murder someone, or to determine if it's even necessary to flee, the vampire can use all of it's knowledge, skills and everything it has at it's disposition to achieve what ever tasks are at hand. Not all vampires know how to fight, but any vampire that enters a frenzy, can add their dots in bloodpotency to any combat related skill as well as survival, athletics, stealth and intimidation. Further more, any vampire may consider itself as having access to dot 4 of "brute force" (a fighting style), 5 dots of "frenzied assault" as well as 5 dots of "berserker". A vampire with an intelligence of 3 or higher may also consider itself as having access to all 5 dots of "armed fighting". During a frenzy, all vampires know how to kill. When huntning or fleeing in a frenzy, the vampire may consider itself as having both "parkour" and "Spelunker". It's possible for a vampire to intentionally frenzy, and remain somewhat in control, but the vampire is constantly in risk of slipping and losing control in such a situation, but the benefits are a great temptation. 'Supernatural healing and the perks of being undead' A vampire can regenerate any wound, and infact the vampire only theoretically needs it's brain to be intact in order to be able to fully regenerate itself, if someone were to feed it pre-processed vitae, and in order for anyone else, it would need only it's brain, heart and lungs to be connected, as well as at least one organ for blood storage. Vampires take aggravated damage from exposure to sunlight and fire, but are fully capable of walking in sun light (albeit at the risk of flying into a fear frenzy), as long as they are not directly exposed to sunlight. They have minus 3 to all actions when the sun is up and minus 5 if the sun is shining directly upon what ever they are using to cover their naked flesh (a roof would mean minus 3, clothing would mean minus 5, ect.). Vampires can see perfectly with no light at all, but suffer -1 to perception checks when normal humans suffer no penalties, and suffer -2 in bright light, and -3 in daylight. They have adapted so that the moon and stars do not bother their eyesight. A vampire doesn't need over 80% of it's body to survive, so bullet wounds, stab wounds and most cuts and bruises count only as bashing damage for a vampire, and anything that normally causes bashing damage always deals only 1 point if any damage was dealt at all. Vampires are immune to heat right up until the point where it burns their flesh away, they are completely immune to cold (but can actually become frozen), they are immune to damage from electricity (but muscle spasms still occur), they suffer very little from falling, they cannot drown or die from exposure to gas and they are immune to poison. However, the effects of broken bones, severed sinews, direct organ damage (severe, and by that we're talking severed organs or partially or entirely missing organs), damage to the heart and other such types of damage is very severe for vampires and causes lethal damage as normal in many cases. Brain damage can kill the vampire (in sufficient amounts), but the vampire is likely to frenzy when the brain is damaged (reason why vampires tend not to go for the brain). If the heart is pierced, and what ever pierced it remains in the heart, the vampire will be paralyzed. Hurt organs can cause loss of access to vitae points stored in them. Broken bones and severed sinews cause loss of motor function, and is more of a serious inconvenience to a vampire than actually harmful. Vampires can heal all bashing damage by spending a single points worth of vitae. Vampires can heal lethal damage by rolling a heal roll (stamina + bloodpotency), successes are equal to damage healed. Normal aggravated damage can be healed at a 1 to 1 ratio, while aggravated damage from fire, sunlight or other supernatural means heals slowly (it takes a day for 1 point to regrow and costs 1 vitae). When vampires die, they instantly decompose, their corpses becoming the age they would have been, and all damage they ever healed in supernatural ways will instantly reappear on the corpse (regrown limbs will instantly turn to ashes). 'Feeding' When feeding, a vampire bites it's victim. The bite can theoretically be placed anywhere on the victims body where it's possible for the vampire to chew into the bloodways, but if the vampire bites down poorly, the process of feeding can take hours instead of minutes. When the vampire bites, the saliva of the vampire is injected into the victimes vains, and this causes the effect known as "the kiss". The effect is mutual however, as the pleasure of feeding causes complete euphoria in the vampire. The blood absorbed by a vampire during feeding will be circulate in the vampires vains, and the vampries heart will beat for the next few hours. This will cause the vampire to seem alive, with the exception of breathing. After a while, the vampire's lungs will have filled up with the excess red liquids, while what the vampire actually needs from the blood has been processed and stored in the vampires organs. The "red mist" is what occurs next, when the vampire exhales the the excess blood-fluid some hours after feeding. Obviously, the vampires lung capacity limits the amount of blood a vampire can process, as the vampire will lose the ability to speak when the lungs are full. The vampire can process ½ a litre of blood pr bloodbotency dot into one points worth of vitae every minute. A normal average vampire can contain a total of 6 litres of blood fluid in it's lungs before it needs to exhale the red mist, and have completely lost the ability to speak. 6 litres of red fluid turns into roughly 12 points worth of vitae. 'Nosferatu' No one knows how, or why, but a vampire upon being embraced has a risk of becoming a nosferatu. The Nosferatu is speculated to be a defect in the curse, or perhaps it's true nature, seeing as some elders eventually also develop it, and vampires who lose their mind to the beast also often eventually succumb to the nosferatu. Nosferatu are found in two stages, stage one emits a strange but very unpleasant aura, alerting anyone in the presence of the nosferatu that they are truly monsters. The scond stage, mutates the appearance of the vampire to be much more monstrous. The Nosferatu of stage one tend to be successful in the courts, where as the stage two nosferatu tend to band together and take to the sewers where no eyes will gaze upon them, staying out of politics, renouncing their bloodlines. The invictus has effectively declared a law that allows any Nosferatu to claim membership in Clan Nosferatu, which is consiered a bloodline and it's own court, but there are rarely enough nosferatu in a city that they bother. Stage one nosferatu tend to keep their memberships in their original courts, but it's becoming a trend for them to defect to Clan Nosferatu and become active politicians for their clan. Stage One nosferatu doesn't necessarily ever turn into stage two, but the effects of both stages are irreversible. Some stage one nosferatu retain all of their mortal beauty, and as with all vampires, their beauty is even slightly enhanced by their undead condition, yet the aura of undeath hangs around them, possible to feel as soon as one lays eyes upon them. Nosferatu of stage one seems to be tied into the senses. Sight, hearing, taste, smell and feeling all trigger the aura, however casual observation from afar seems to negate the effects, and as such, a stage one nosferatu can easily blend into a crowd if he bothers to try and remain incognito. 'Malkavia ' Malkavia is believed to be the result of generation upon generation of blood bonds from sire to child. Sometimes a vampire develops a stronger connection to the blood within them. This is described by some, as the hive mind. Vampires who succumb to their nature usually work together in small groups and never occur to be rivals or enemies, forming a strict unbending hierarchy with the oldest in charge. This suggests that the curse has a will of it's own. Elder vampires spend a great deal of time in torpor, and most vampires spend the day time in torpor, all experience the strange vision like dreams. On several occasions, it has been proved that when dreaming, a vampire sees through the eyes of a Malkavian who is awake, and their subconscious tries to guide this vampire, this is believed to be a side effect of the hive-mind effect that is part of the vampires true bestial nature. Malkavians, when awake, constantly feel strange impulses, they hear voices in their head, many of them have difficulty leading conversations because they have a hard time concentrating due to the constant flow of information. Only malkavians with a high composure score manage to not appear crazy. Most malkavians eventually go insane, but not all are. Vampires live indefinately, and some that once were insane eventually regain sanity. Malkavia can strike in a vampire at any age, but most often strikes at creation, like Nosferatu. Malkavians have been condemned in periods, forced to band together much like the Nosferatu, with the exception of those who manage to hide their nature. They have always managed to gain foothold and just like with the Nosferatu, they are recognized as Clan Malkavia - on equal footing with any bloodline. The vast majority of Malkavians are considered rather useless, as they spend the first many years of their vampirism coming to terms with their condition, and once they have, they enter vampire society as strong and well developed vampires with little experience. Some Malkavians retain their membership in their original court, these are often referred to as Malkovians, but this isn't an actual term. Malkovians often do not reveal their nature to others, and most Malkovians are the ones that were already hiding some psychological trauama when they were embraced, while others develop Malkavia later in their unlife as a result, perhaps, of the unlife itself. 'Organization' Regardless of what they believe, most vampires today organize themselves in courts. Vampires suffer from bonds through the blood that run from sire to child, these bonds make vampires much more likely to respect and obey their elders, causing a world wide phenomenon: Vampires tend to organize themselves in bloodlines, stemming from the same elder who at some point declared that he was the start of a bloodline. Some bloodlines are so old, that their ancestor is but a fabled myth, while others are so young that they are barely known to other vampires. Vampires have difficulties travelling, as one might expect, and as such, the bloodlines are typically local. In most regions, vampires form courts consisting of several bloodlines in a union as a court. Often there are 2 or 3 courts in a region, but only one court governs. The ruler of the court currently in charge is named the leader of all vampires in that region. Several other organizations exist; 'The Invictus' The invictus is an organization of elder vampires that spans the globe. They keep close watch on all regions, and make sure that all vampires obey their basic laws. They are rarely directly involved in politics, but have been known to step in and take control over certain places, condemning many people to final death and then leaving. Their interests and demands are that the elder vampires are respected, that the masquerade is unbroken, that there is only one ruler of a region, only one sheriff and that he keeps the peace, that all bloodlines represented and respected can trace their heritage back to one of the fabled 5 antideluvians and that new bloodlines don't suddenly appear. The invictus are considered the most powerful faction of vampries in the world. The courts are the way of the invictus. The invictus make no demands that the vampires living under it's rules are in any way supporters of their ways or beliefs, as long as any member simply accepts their rule. Being a supporter of the invictus is considered mandatory in most regions, but being a member is reserved for elders. Elders typically gladly join as it offers them prestige, respect and authority, and by controlling the elders, they control those that the elders have sired. 'The Carthian Movement' Members of the Carthian Movement break away from the norm. Apart from keeping the masquerade, they don't respect any of the laws of the Invictus. A few cities have fallen to the Carthian Movemement, but globally speaking, they are not represented in the entire world, they have few elders among them and they are often either regarded as hopeless idealists that are allowed to live because their ideals as such break no laws, or they are treated as traitors and put to the final death if their rebellion can be quelled. Members of the Carthian movement form their own courts in cities, but these courts are rarely respected. Any vampire may form a court, but is not likely to gain support. Some cities have strong Carthian courts that are starting to win recognition. 'Religious groups' Religious groups have existed for thousands of years among the Vampires. Muslim, Jewish, budhist and other religions are represented among these often small and localized groups. Membership in a such group can be held while also being a member of a court. Members of these groups have their own myths and legends about how they came to be vampires, but are often ridiculed by others. Such groups include the Lancea Sanctum (Christians) and the Circle of the Crone (pagan). Lancea Sanctum and the Circle of the Crone are among the more powerful Covenants in the Western World. In the Middle-East and North Africa, membership of the Assamite Covenant is almost mandatory. In the far east, there are varying Covenants, the biggest one is built on ancient East Asian religion that isn't even practiced anymore, called the Kuei Jin, and again, membership of such a covenant is nearly mandatory. In these regions of the world, other minor covenants might exist and dual membership is often entirely possible, but the major Covenants are so important to the local community that it's almost unfathomable to the Western Kindred. 'Clans' A clan is a major grouping of vampiric bloodlines that trace their heritage back to the same ancient ancestor. The West, East and middle-east do not share the same clans, but vampire historians have come to believe that it is infact the same few clans that exist across these cultures, only with different names and importences and different histories. The clans do not have an importance internationally, but the bloodlines of a specific clan are often allies (or rivals), and can relate better to each other. The different bloodlines fight for control over the clan as a whole, in areas where clan is important. In areas where clans are not important (often due to there being very few Kindred in most areas), some bloodlines still form alliances based on their mutual clan heritage, but this often doesn't translate into major political movements. In bigger cities where there are more kindred, the clans compete for control over the city. The leader of a clan is found within the clan itself, through different means, but is otherwise known as a primogen. Another, mostly informal title, found in the clan, is the "Whip". A whip doesn't concern himself with vampire politics, but only concerns himself with the clan itself, and Whips are often traditionalists who carry out certain rituals or what not, typically elders. The term Whip is an invictus term and the title is entirely informal in most areas. 'Ventrue' The Ventrue clan mirrors the V:TM Ventrue clan more closely than the V:TR clan now, but we're using V:TR lore primarily. Consult the corebook and ventrue specific book for more information on the ventrue clan. Disciplines: Dominate, Majesty and Nightmare. Favourite Physical Discipline: Fortitude/resilliance. 'Gangrel' The Gangrel changed a lot from V:TM to V:TR, for the better I would personally say. Just to summarize what role the gangrel currently fill, they're not just the attack dogs, they aren't just the warriors or the animals. I want them to showcase a lot of the rebellious Brujah spirit from V:TM also. They're true vampires who don't take shit from anyone, and who ever stands in their way had better come strapped. Their disciplines are: Protean, Animalism and Auspex. A gangrel may freely choose his favourite physical discipline. 'Daeva' The Daeva have been changed so that they much more closely mirror the Toreador clan from V:TM now. They are social creatures renown for their ability to stay in touch with the mortal world. Their disciplines are: Majesty, Nightmare and Auspex. Their favourite physical discipline is vigor/potence. 'Malkavian' The Malkavians are a confusing lot as detailed earlier. They tend to be extremely diverse and much less politically inclined than other vampires, but it's not unheard of that malkavians rise to power. Malkavians replace their primary discipline with Dementation (Special - Not corebook). Malkavians otherwise mirror one of the other clans. 'Nosferatu' Nosferatu tend to favor the invictus for mainly historical reasons, and the Nosferatu clan is very strict and tight knit. They take much more care of their own than most do, their alliances running much deeper than other kindred. It's speculated whether this is a slight effect of the bestial hive-mind, but it's probably more psychological. The Nosferatu don't hold much political sway, but they've always made excellent assassins and spies because of their tendencies to have abundances of spare time from lack of possible social contact and also their tendency to develop more subtle powers. Nosferatu replace their primary discipline with obfuscate, but otherwise mirror another clan. 'Bloodlines' All bloodlines are directly associated with a clan. If not, it's simply because the bloodline is too old to do so, refuses to do so or because the bloodline is of a volatile nature which has made it very difficult to trace lineage even a few years back (accidental embrace, ect.). Many bloodlines actually fall into these categories, for one reason or another, renouncing their clan-heritage to remain independant. Some bloodlines like these have grown very big, a good example is the Giovanni which is a ventrue bloodline that considers itself entirely independant, and the bloodline infact controls most of Italy. Bloodlines are often not represented by more than two or three kindred in a city, and the different bloodlines struggle for control over the clan. The bloodline elder by default controls the bloodline. In smaller communities, there's often just two to three bloodlines represented, these often being slightly bigger. Truly small communities might only have a single bloodline represented. The result almost invariably remains the same; vampires always struggle for control. There are incredible amounts of bloodlines. A bloodline is typically established when members of a previously existing bloodline decide to branch off, or because a specifically powerful member of a bloodline suddenly becomes more important than his own bloodline and then lineage is traced to that member. Look in the vampire books for bloodlines. Mekhet bloodlines will be hashed out to different clans depending on relevance. Unlike in the core system, bloodlines are now activated from the start, and finding a vampire without a bloodline is highly unusual. 'Powers' Vampires have access to certain powers, these powers are known as disciplines, and are divided into four categories. Remember, that as a rule of thumb, any vampire can learn any discipline. 'Clan specific disciplines' Clan specific disciplines are the primary disciplines of the different clans. They cost is multiplied by 5, or by seven for vampires who are not members of that clan. 'Common disciplines' The common disciplines are non-physical disciplines that all vampires have access to. They cost times 6 normally, but times 4 if it's a secondary discipline for your character. Auspex Animalism 'Physical disciplines' The physical disciplines are the easiest disciplines to advance for the vampires. Indeed, they even advance naturally to some extent. A vampire's primary physical discipline advances everytime the vampire advances in bloodpotency. Raising this discipline can be done paying only times two, any exp spent to raise the discipline will be used as a discount to raise bloodpotency later. Physical discplines normally cost only times three to raise though. 'Celerity' Activating celerity gives a bonus to defence and initiative equal to the rating, and the users speed is multiplied by the rating. It further more allows the user to use his defence against ranged weapons, and if using celerity, conditions that would normally render the character defenseless are discounted. Activation lasts one round. As a special feature, the activation can last an entire scene, as long as the character doesn't stop moving. This only translates into effect when a character is running uninterrupted. As a passive bonus, the user gains a permanent +1 bonus to speed for each dot which is passive. The reason celerity cannot be used to gain additional attacks, is because while the user moves faster, the surrounding world does not. Punching someone, stabbing someone or what not, is going to break the effect. Using celerity with a firearm however, allows for the user to short-burst despite the weapon not being capable of such. 'Resilliance/Fortitude' Instead of granting additonal health, it grants one point of armor (universal). As a bonus, the discipline functions exactly like the toughness merit passively. When activated it lasts a scene. 'Potence/Vigor' When activated, this discipline grants a +1 to strength pr dot possessed. Every dot adds 2 additional dice to any rolls regading jumping, on top of the strength bonus, and every success represents two meters worth of jumping distance. Remember that a roll should only be made when jumping at the very treshold of the characters maximal jumping distance, otherwise treat it as an automatic success. As a side effect, the character permanently gains the effects of the strong-back merit equal to rating as a passive effect.